Don’t stand so close to me: Line forms here for CA Dems blowing off the national convention (VIDEO)

Have you heard what all the cool Dem kids are doing now? They’re blowing off the national convention in Charlotte. It’s soooooooooooo 2000-and-late. (h/t Black Eyed Peas.)

UPDATE: A spot check around the California delegation shows that there will be a few hotel rooms opening up unexpectedly in Charlotte and Tampa, where the GOP will meet.

Rep. Jerry McNerney is not going. But he’s got a good excuse, per spokesperson Lauren Smith: “It’s his son’s wedding that weekend.”

As for East Bay Democratic Rep. John Garamendi — the state’s former Lite Guv — “A decision has not been made yet,” Garamendi spokesman Donald Lathbury said Wednesday. “We’ll have a better sense of his schedule closer to the convention.”

It would be significant if he didn’t go: Garamendi hasn’t missed a national convention since 1976.

“Garamendi has a new district, and he expects to be campaigning aggressively through the election,” Lathbury said. “He strongly supports President Obama, so if that’s the narrative you’re looking for, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

OK, let’s bark in Marin County, where Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who is the Dem nominee for a North Coast Congresional seat isn’t sure if he’s going. Will decide closer to the date. Depends on cost and the race. But, Huffman tells us, “If I skip it, I want to be clear that it won’t be because I’m seeking distance from the President. I am happy to support and campaign with him anytime!”

Also not sure if they’re going is Republican Ricky Gill from Lodi, who is facing McNerney. “We haven’t made any decisions re Tampa,” said Team Gill’s Colin Hunter. We figured Ricky would be there, as a member of the GOP’s Young Guns candidate program.

We’re still waiting to hear from Republican Dan Roberts, who is taking on Huffman in the North Coast Second District, about whether they’re going to Tampa. No response from his peeps.

Rep. Lois Capps, who’s expected to face a close central coast contest with Republican former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, is not going. Her spokesman says that she is “extremely supportive” of the president, but feels her time would be better spent in the district. She’s even holding a convention watch party.

But his spokesman said that he simply hasn’t decided yet if planning and logistics will permit, and probably won’t until July.

Central Valley Dem Rep. Jim Costa is going.

One GOP California strategist tell us that unlike some congressional Dems, “we got the opposite challenge, at least as far as the State Legislative representatives are concerned. The enthusiasm to attend the convention to nominate the next President of the United States, Mitt Romney, is off the charts.”

“But given the California legislative session, our members will have to stay back to perform their duties. There’s zero concern about Republicans bailing on the convention or our nominee. We’re chomping at the bit to get to Tampa, and then cary the enthusiasm through to a Romney victory in November.”

The national Dem conga line outta Charlotte is growing, thanks to some high-profile dancers joining the dance. Political minutes after Dem Sen. Claire McCaskill said she was blowing off the Dem convention, Rep. Steve Israel — the party’s chief candidate recruiter, who we’ve chatted with here in San Francisco — said, essentially, “Good idea.” McCaskill, an incumbent who was one of Obama’s earliest supporters, is getting crushed in her re-election effort.

“If they want to win an election, they need to be in their district,” Israel said Tuesday at a Reuters confab in Washington.

But noooooooooooo, it doesn’t have anything to do with a candidate from a swing district/state being photographed anywhere within sniffing distance of President Obama’s musk. Nooooooooooooo, noooooooooooooo, not that, Israel said. No matter that three Democratic senators and eight members of Congress — nearly all from states where the O doesn’t play well — are staying home. Three are from West Virginia, where a http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/prison-inmate-wins-more-than-40-of-democratic-vote-over-president-obama-in-wv-primaryscored 42 percent of the vote in the state’s presidential Democratic primary.

“I don’t care if the president was at 122 percent favorability right now,” Israel said. “I think (candidates) should be in their district.”

And a growing number will be. Those who are choosing to, ahem, “wash their hair,” are listed here: (For the reading-averse, Talking Points Memos groups them all in this lovely slide show.)